|
Areas of Major Interest
Epithelial carcinogenesis, oncogenes, growth factors, transgenic models and cancer prevention.
Education and Previous Positions
Dr. DiGiovanni earned his BS in Pharmacy and his Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin and worked at The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia before being recruited to The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Now professor and chair of the Department of Carcinogenesis, he directs M.D. Anderson’s Science Park – Research Division and the National Institute of Environmental Health Science’s Center for Research on Environmental Disease located there. He is an active faculty member at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Houston, adjunct professor in the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at The University of Texas at Austin, adjunct professor and member of the Graduate Studies Committee in the Department of Human Ecology, Division of Natural Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and a visiting member of the graduate faculty of Texas A&M University’s Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology. He holds the J. Ralph Meadows Chair in Carcinogenesis Research at the Science Park – Research Division.
Dr. DiGiovanni is a recognized expert in the field of chemical carcinogenesis and particularly multistage carcinogenesis using the mouse skin model. His research accomplishments have spanned the fields of metabolism and metabolic activation of polycyclic hydrocarbon (PAH) carcinogens, PAH DNA adduct chemistry, PAH-induced macromolecular damage and mutagenesis, and more recently in understanding signaling pathways related to chemically-induced cell proliferation and tumor promotion. In recent years, Dr. DiGiovanni has been using transgenic approaches both for addressing mechanistic questions about signal transduction pathways and carcinogenesis, but also for developing new animal models of human cancer. Dr. DiGiovanni has had an interest in chemoprevention for many years. He is currently studying dietary energy balance and its impact on skin and prostate carcinogenesis and also several potential chemopreventive agents using the two-stage skin carcinogenesis model.
Representative Publications: Past Three Years
Chan KS, Carbajal S, Kiguchi K, Clifford J, Sano S, DiGiovanni J. Epidermal growth factor receptor-mediated activation of Stat3 during multistage mouse skin carcinogenesis. Cancer Res 64:2382-2389, 2004
Soliman AS, Vulimiri SV, Kleiner HE, Shen J, Eissa S, Morad M, Taha H, Lukmanji F, Li D, Johnston DA, Lo H-H, Lau S, DiGiovanni J, Bondy ML. High levels of oxidative DNA damage in lymphocyte DNA of premenopausal breast cancer patients from Egypt. Int J Env Health Res 14:121-134, 2004
Salas TR, Kim J, Vakar-Lopez F, Sabichi AL, Troncoso P, Jenster G, Kikuchi A, Chen S-Y, Shemshedini L, Suraokar M, Logothetis CJ, DiGiovanni J, Lippman SM, Menter DG. Glycogen synthase kinase-3- is involved in the phosphorylation and suppression of androgen receptor activity. J Biol Chem 279:19191-19200, 2004
Matsumoto T, Kiguchi K. Jiang J, Carbajal S, Ruffino L, Beltran L, Wang X-J, Roop DR, DiGiovanni J. Development of transgenic mice that inducibly express an active form of c-Src in the epidermis. Mol Carcinog 40:189-200, 2004
Chan KS, Sano S, Kiguchi K, Anders J, Komazawa N, Takeda J, DiGiovanni J. Disruption of Stat3 reveals a critical role in both the initiation and promotion stages of epithelial carcinogenesis. J Clinical Invest 114:720-728, 2004
Kleiner HE, Vulimiri SV, Hatten WB, Reed MJ, Nebert DW, Jefcoate CR, DiGiovanni J. Role of cytochrome P4501 family members in the metabolic activation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mouse epidermis. Chem Res Toxicol 17:1667-1674, 2004
Sano S, Chan KS, Carbajal S, Clifford J, Peavy M, Kiguchi K, Itami S, Nickeloff .J, DiGiovanni J. Stat3 links activated keratinocytes and immunocytes for development of psoriasis in a novel transgenic mouse model. Nat Med 11:43-49, 2005
Mammen JS, Kleiner HE, DiGiovanni J, Sutter TR, Strickland PT. Coumarins are competitive inhibitors of cytochrome P450 1B1, with equal potency for allelic variants. Pharmacogenomics and Genomics 15:183-188, 2005
Sano S, Chan KS, Kira M, Kataoka K, Takagi S, Tarutani M, Itami S, Kiguchi K, Yokoi M, Sugusawa K. Mori T, Hanaoka F, Takeda J, DiGiovanni J. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 is a key regulator of keratinocyte survival and proliferation following ultraviolet irradiation. Cancer Res 65:5720-5729, 2005
Kiguchi K, Ruffino L, Kawamoto T, Ajiki T, DiGiovanni J. Chemopreventive and therapeutic efficacy of orally active tyrosine kinase inhibitors in a transgenic mouse model of gallbladder carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res 11:5572-5580, 2005
Wilker E, Lu J, Rho O, Carbajal S, Beltran L, DiGiovanni J. Role of P13K/Akt signaling in insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) skin tumor promotion. Mol Carcinogenesis 44:137-145, 2005
Riggs PK, Angel JM, Abel EL, DiGiovanni J. Differential gene expression in epidermis of mice sensitive and resistant to phorbol ester skin tumor promotion. Mol Carcinogenesis 44:122-136, 2005
He G, Sung YM, DiGiovanni J, Fischer SM. Thiazolidinediones inhibit insulin-like growth factor-1 induced activation of p70S6 kinase and suppress insulin-like growth factor-1 tumor- promoting activity. Cancer Res 66:1873-1878, 2006
Gaddis SS, Wu Q, Thames HD, DiGiovanni J, Walborg EF, McLeod MC, Vasquez KM. Triplex-forming oligonucleotide target sequence database. Oligonucleotides 16:196-201, 2006
Yin W, Cheepala S, Roberts J.N, Syson-Chan K, DiGiovanni J, Clifford JL. Active Stat3 is required for survival of human squamous cell carcinoma cells in serum-free conditions. Molecular Cancer 5:15, 2006
Wu Q, Gaddis SS, MacLeod MC, Walborg EF. Thames HD, DiGiovanni J, Vasquez K. High-affinity triplex-forming oligonucleotide target sequences in mammalian genomes. Mol Carcinogenesis 46:15-23, 2006
Shen J, Riggs PK, Hensley SC, Schroeder LJ, Traner AR, Kochan K.J, Person MD, DiGiovanni J. Differential expression of multiple anti-apoptotic proteins in epidermis of IGF-1 transgenic mice as revealed by 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis/mass spectrometry analysis. Mol Carcinogenesis, 46:331-340, 2007
Wu Q, Kiguchi K, Ajiki T, Kawamoto T, Traag J, Carbajal S, Ruffino L, Vasquez KM, DiGiovanni J. Therapeutic efficacy of rapamycin in a transgenic mouse model of gallbladder carcinoma. Cancer Res 67:3794-800, 2007
Kiguchi K, Ruffino L, Kawamoto T, Franco E, Kurakata S-i, Fujiwara K, Hanai M, Rumi M, DiGiovanni J. Therapeutic effect of CS-706, a specific cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, on gallbladder carcinoma in BK5.ErbB-2 mice. Mol Cancer Therapeutics 6:1709-1717, 2007
Lee S, Chari NS, Kim HW, Wang X, Roop DR, Cho SH, DiGiovanni J, McDonnell TJ. Cooperation of Ha-ras and Bcl-2 during multistep skin carcinogenesis. Mol Carcinogenesis, in press, 2007
Chan KS, Sano S, Kataoka K, Carbajal S, Clifford J, Peavey M, Holleck L, Emory R, DiGiovanni J. Forced expression of a constitutively active Stat3 enhances malignant conversion of skin tumors in transgenic mice. Oncogene, in press, 2007
Lu J. Rho O, Wilker E, Carbajal S, Kiguchi K, DiGiovanni J. Activation of epidermal Akt by diverse skin tumor promoters. Mol Cancer Res, in press, 2007
Kim DJ, DiGiovanni J. Stat3 and epithelial carcinogenesis. (Invited article) Mol Carcinogenesis, in press, 2007
Sano S, Chan KS, DiGiovanni J. Impact of Stat3 activation upon skin biology: A dichotomy of its role between homeostasis and diseases. (Invited article) J Invest Dermatol, in press, 2007
Chan KS, Sano S, Kataoka K, Carbajal S, Clifford J, Peavey M, Holleck L, Emory R, DiGiovanni J. Forced expression of a constitutively active Stat3 enhances malignant conversion of skin tumors in transgenic mice. Oncogene, in press, 2007
Segrelles C, Lu J, Hammann B, Santos M, Moral M, Cascallana JL, Lara MF, Rho O, Carbajal S, Traag J, Beltran L, Martinez-Cruz AB, Garcia-Escudero R, Lorz C. Ruiz S, Bravo A, Paramio JM, DiGiovanni J. Deregulated activity of Akt in epithelial basal cells induces spontaneous tumors and heightened sensitivity to skin carcinogenesis. Cancer Res, in press, 2007
Return to NTR Faculty Page |
